New president at Kurtzman, Orci's place

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Producer Bobby Cohen has been hired as president of Kurtzman/Orci Prods., and K/O execs Steven Puri and Mandy Safavi have been promoted to executive vp.

K/O Prods. is the fledgling production outfit of writer-producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who penned the upcoming "Star Trek" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

DreamWorks Studios, where K/O is based, also recently signed the pair to a two-year, first-look deal.

"Alex and Bob started at DreamWorks as writers and have steadily evolved into a super-talented, multitasking filmmaking duo," DreamWorks principal Steven Spielberg said. "Their taste for unique stories is unparalleled, which is why we're excited to have them on the DreamWorks team."

K/O's first produced film, "Eagle Eye," has grossed $173 million worldwide. In June, the company's second release, the Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds comedy "The Proposal," will hit theaters via Touchstone.

Cohen will go to work on a number of high-profile projects in development at K/O:

Cohen was an executive at Miramax and president of Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher's Red Wagon Prods. He produced "Revolutionary Road" and "View From the Top" and exec produced "Jarhead," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Bewitched" and "Definitely, Maybe."

"We clicked with Bobby the minute we sat down with him," Kurtzman said.

K/O exec Pete Chiarelli, who wrote the screenplay for "The Proposal," will transition to writing full time. He will still consult.

"DreamWorks is and always will be a filmmakers' sanctuary in a town where there are far too few of them," Orci said. (partialdiff)